Passengers lie. That's life. Not all of them, but more than your boss will publicly admit. And your boss is in a good position to see this, having fielded all the complaints that, through utilising the CCTV footage, can be proven as bullshit.
A woman who looks like mutton dressed as lamb gets on in a village in an area where her bus pass cannot be used before 9.30am on a weekday. Now she's always paid cash but recently must have turned 60. Equipped with this precious piece of card, she's tries to board at 8am with her pass. The first time she did this, she had a massive row with the relatively new driver, who became very concerned that he was in the wrong, despite knowing otherwise. All went quiet for a number of months but she's started again.
What she doesn't know is that we drivers communicate to each other through a series of grunts. 7 grunts and a squeal means: "That nasty posh tart who's recently turned 60 who gets on at X will try and take the piss with a bus pass and under no circumstances accept it for travel on a weekday."
She's clearly cottoned onto this non-acceptance now, so matters have changed. Her single fare was £2 though with the fares rise last week it is now £2.10 (it's not, but I'm using this to illustrate the actual scenario where her single to town has risen by 10p recently).
She boarded my bus today and put down just £2 and briskly walked off. This despite me telling her the fare was £2.10. I called her back rather loudly as on the first occasion she didn't hear. Back she came and then argued the toss about how I was wrong. I suggested she'd not travelled on the bus since the fares rise but she's on the bus every day and has never been charged £2.10 yet. "All the other drivers can't be wrong, surely?"
"Yes they are. It's £2.10 please," said I, stony faced.
With much head shaking, she paid up and sat down. She must think we're all thick. We cannot override the ticket machine. Where she gets on to where she is going has the fare pre-programmed into the ticket machine as £2.10. There's no way we can offer another fare unless her journey is different.
Common Sense Solution: hold these arse holes in the same contempt that they hold you. You'll always win provided you don't swear or do something that will cause the passenger to contact your depot to complain about your attitude. Smiling is especially good in these circumstances as you're doing it to be a cocky git, while they cannot complain as outwardly it appears polite. Just remember, in virtually all cases like this, the passenger is lying or, at best, mistaken. Uphold the party line.
Thursday 19 April 2012
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Lunacy
Today a woman boarded with a collection of small kids and a buggy. Many of the little chavs were very young and ran off to the back of the bus. The woman asked for just a ticket for herself. I enquired as to the age of her gang and it transpired 3 of the 6 were of a chargeable fare. That pissed her off immediately - being unable to commit fraud.
Anyway, she paid and moved towards the buggy zone. Except she stopped by the luggage rack over the front left-side wheel and proceeded to lift her entire, unfolded buggy up and place it in the rack on its wheels. This was the first time in the many decades I've been driving buses that I've ever seen this happen.
"What are you doing!" I asked.
"Putting it up here out the way."
"You need to fold it if you want to put it there - what if it fell on a child as they were getting off?"
"Well the other driver said it would be OK".
Ah, that old chestnut; the OTHER DRIVER. This infamous character is the one who lets passengers do as they please. They let them get away with whatever they want yet curiously they cannot be described or named.
She even offered to lay it flat - but fully opened - on the luggage rack, wheels sticking into the aisle at the right height of an infant's head.
"I'm sorry, you either leave it open and leave it there (pointing at the empty buggy zone) or fold it up. It's just not safe to leave it there."
More tutting and huffing and she eventually left it in the buggy zone but buggered off down the back with her clan. To be fair to everyone else, if your sprog isn't sitting in the buggy, then it needs to be folded up.
As I got a couple of stops down the road, the entire buggy tipped back as the under-class mother hadn't distributed all the bags she had attached to it properly. I couldn't resist leaning round and saying to her, as she righted it, "Imagine if that was three feet in the air over the front wheel like you'd wanted at first."
She didn't respond.
Common Sense Solution: As unpopular as some rulings are to passengers, you have to enforce them. Drivers are not only paid a pittance to drive buses; they have to enforce and uphold company regulations and the law. Buggy owners are so selfish. Consistency needs to be maintained and 'the other driver' completely ignored as chances are he doesn't exist anyway. Also, the OAPs are on your side here too as they didn't have the luxury of super low floor buses when they were travelling with their kids.
Anyway, she paid and moved towards the buggy zone. Except she stopped by the luggage rack over the front left-side wheel and proceeded to lift her entire, unfolded buggy up and place it in the rack on its wheels. This was the first time in the many decades I've been driving buses that I've ever seen this happen.
"What are you doing!" I asked.
"Putting it up here out the way."
"You need to fold it if you want to put it there - what if it fell on a child as they were getting off?"
"Well the other driver said it would be OK".
Ah, that old chestnut; the OTHER DRIVER. This infamous character is the one who lets passengers do as they please. They let them get away with whatever they want yet curiously they cannot be described or named.
She even offered to lay it flat - but fully opened - on the luggage rack, wheels sticking into the aisle at the right height of an infant's head.
"I'm sorry, you either leave it open and leave it there (pointing at the empty buggy zone) or fold it up. It's just not safe to leave it there."
More tutting and huffing and she eventually left it in the buggy zone but buggered off down the back with her clan. To be fair to everyone else, if your sprog isn't sitting in the buggy, then it needs to be folded up.
As I got a couple of stops down the road, the entire buggy tipped back as the under-class mother hadn't distributed all the bags she had attached to it properly. I couldn't resist leaning round and saying to her, as she righted it, "Imagine if that was three feet in the air over the front wheel like you'd wanted at first."
She didn't respond.
Common Sense Solution: As unpopular as some rulings are to passengers, you have to enforce them. Drivers are not only paid a pittance to drive buses; they have to enforce and uphold company regulations and the law. Buggy owners are so selfish. Consistency needs to be maintained and 'the other driver' completely ignored as chances are he doesn't exist anyway. Also, the OAPs are on your side here too as they didn't have the luxury of super low floor buses when they were travelling with their kids.
Saturday 14 April 2012
Missed Stop
Sometimes passengers are in worlds of their own and through their daydreaming they miss their stop. Usually, the bell is rung not long after the missed stop and the passenger rushes to the front, asking to be let off. If there's a stop very soon indeed, I usually pretend I'm a little deaf and ask them to repeat themselves, by which point we're at the next stop and I've not had to do an unscheduled stop. Often these unscheduled stops can be in places that aren't too safe and the passenger just thinks you're being a bigger twat than normal by not stopping the bus immediately.
Today, a woman rang the bell as I was level with a bus stop at the junction of the main road and Street Y. I was doing 40mph at the time - the speed limit at this point along the route. I did wonder if she wanted the stop in question, but at 40mph and parallel as the bell was rung, there was no way I was even going to contemplate slamming my brakes on. I was starting to slow though as I was making the next left turn, into Street Z.
As I turned into Street Z there's an immediate bus stop. The woman who pressed the bell as I was passing Street Y started to complain that I was going the wrong way as I turned into Street Z. She thought that I was turning a street too soon, into Street Y. That's how much notice she was taking. As I opened the door, she must have realised her mistake.
The nasty bitch then started to bollock me for not stopping at the stop before!!
Can you believe it?! I was going to argue, but luckily a number of people were leaving here - all of whom wanted to leave here and her protestations were drowned out by my thanking others leaving the bus here. I made no eye contact with her, just said "Thanks!" on a number of occasions as everyone else got off.
Common-sense solution: We all miss our stop. I've daydreamed before and gone the wrong way. That's life. If I can stop safely I will, but usually that's not the case. So you have to walk back a block - deal with it. Most do. This woman was so unaware she hadn't realised she'd gone past her stop and yet chose to tell me off for not stopping for her. I'd have needed to know she wanted the stop before she rang the bell - late. I sensed there'd end up being a slanging match, which is no good for anyone. I was happy in the knowledge she'd rung the bell too late by anyone's book and this would be shown using the CCTV. This only happened today, so expect a follow-up entry if she phones to complain!
Today, a woman rang the bell as I was level with a bus stop at the junction of the main road and Street Y. I was doing 40mph at the time - the speed limit at this point along the route. I did wonder if she wanted the stop in question, but at 40mph and parallel as the bell was rung, there was no way I was even going to contemplate slamming my brakes on. I was starting to slow though as I was making the next left turn, into Street Z.
As I turned into Street Z there's an immediate bus stop. The woman who pressed the bell as I was passing Street Y started to complain that I was going the wrong way as I turned into Street Z. She thought that I was turning a street too soon, into Street Y. That's how much notice she was taking. As I opened the door, she must have realised her mistake.
The nasty bitch then started to bollock me for not stopping at the stop before!!
Can you believe it?! I was going to argue, but luckily a number of people were leaving here - all of whom wanted to leave here and her protestations were drowned out by my thanking others leaving the bus here. I made no eye contact with her, just said "Thanks!" on a number of occasions as everyone else got off.
Common-sense solution: We all miss our stop. I've daydreamed before and gone the wrong way. That's life. If I can stop safely I will, but usually that's not the case. So you have to walk back a block - deal with it. Most do. This woman was so unaware she hadn't realised she'd gone past her stop and yet chose to tell me off for not stopping for her. I'd have needed to know she wanted the stop before she rang the bell - late. I sensed there'd end up being a slanging match, which is no good for anyone. I was happy in the knowledge she'd rung the bell too late by anyone's book and this would be shown using the CCTV. This only happened today, so expect a follow-up entry if she phones to complain!
Thursday 12 April 2012
Laughing in my Face
I started to load some people on my bus recently and they were all OAPs travelling for free with their bus passes. The fourth in line was a black woman who asked for her destination while placing her hand by the side of the ticket machine, where the ticket would come from. She looked fairly old but didn't ask for a concession to X or show a card and ask for X. I told her the fare. She spluttered.
She pointed to her purse, which was open, inside which, amid the numerous coins and cough sweets, was a bus pass in a money bag. You could only see it was a bus pass by the location of the colours on what otherwise could have been anything credit card sized.
Silly me, I then did what I'm paid to do and asked her to show me the pass. There are quite a few that are running out of date and we're told to offer no leeway at all as what we get back per journey is so shit no operator is willing to give an inch when the error is the passenger's and the passenger's alone.
This black woman seemed surprised that I was asking to see her pass. Looking bewildered she got it out and showed me it but it was still in the money bag and I couldn't see the expiry date or, more importantly, that it was her photo on it.
"Well I've never been asked to do this before!" the woman said, laughing nervously. I suspect the volume of her voice was so that others on the bus could hear how unreasonable I'd been when actually they'd all done what I was now asking her to do except they'd done it without hesitation.
I checked the pass - in date and it was her beaming smile - issued her ticket and off she went. As she was about to go up the stairs, she said to anyone in the lower saloon who wanted to listen that "I've never come across such a bully in all the years I've been travelling on the buses!"
There's only so much I can stand, so I turned round from the cab and very publicly informed her that if she did not like showing her bus pass to obtain a FREE, yes, FREE journey on the bus, could I suggest that she get off and catch the train to her destination. The woman headed back to the front, if only to shut me up as the tables were now turning and it was she who was being embarrassed.
With her face right in mine (wrinkles and all!) she just burst out laughing. Just a very long cackle. I'd love to have thrown her off. But it would be one of those situations where the local press would be involved. I'd have to say that I removed her from the vehicle for laughing in my face, which compared to the conduct of the most troublesome of passengers, is a very minor offence.
I told her to go away and she did - upstairs, silently.
Common-sense solution: Sadly, ignorance is rife in all manner of life. This woman may not have wanted to make her age obvious to everyone else on board so assumed she'd just put her hand by the ticket machine to await her free ticket. I don't suggest all bus passes be thrust into the driver's face or slammed against the assault screen, but they need to be displayed clearly. I'd never seen this woman before so familiarity wasn't to blame. In the scheme of things, laughing in my face is not a smackable offence, regrettably. Rise above it. It's hard, but I think this dozy cow wouldn't dare do the same to me again.
She pointed to her purse, which was open, inside which, amid the numerous coins and cough sweets, was a bus pass in a money bag. You could only see it was a bus pass by the location of the colours on what otherwise could have been anything credit card sized.
Silly me, I then did what I'm paid to do and asked her to show me the pass. There are quite a few that are running out of date and we're told to offer no leeway at all as what we get back per journey is so shit no operator is willing to give an inch when the error is the passenger's and the passenger's alone.
This black woman seemed surprised that I was asking to see her pass. Looking bewildered she got it out and showed me it but it was still in the money bag and I couldn't see the expiry date or, more importantly, that it was her photo on it.
"Well I've never been asked to do this before!" the woman said, laughing nervously. I suspect the volume of her voice was so that others on the bus could hear how unreasonable I'd been when actually they'd all done what I was now asking her to do except they'd done it without hesitation.
I checked the pass - in date and it was her beaming smile - issued her ticket and off she went. As she was about to go up the stairs, she said to anyone in the lower saloon who wanted to listen that "I've never come across such a bully in all the years I've been travelling on the buses!"
There's only so much I can stand, so I turned round from the cab and very publicly informed her that if she did not like showing her bus pass to obtain a FREE, yes, FREE journey on the bus, could I suggest that she get off and catch the train to her destination. The woman headed back to the front, if only to shut me up as the tables were now turning and it was she who was being embarrassed.
With her face right in mine (wrinkles and all!) she just burst out laughing. Just a very long cackle. I'd love to have thrown her off. But it would be one of those situations where the local press would be involved. I'd have to say that I removed her from the vehicle for laughing in my face, which compared to the conduct of the most troublesome of passengers, is a very minor offence.
I told her to go away and she did - upstairs, silently.
Common-sense solution: Sadly, ignorance is rife in all manner of life. This woman may not have wanted to make her age obvious to everyone else on board so assumed she'd just put her hand by the ticket machine to await her free ticket. I don't suggest all bus passes be thrust into the driver's face or slammed against the assault screen, but they need to be displayed clearly. I'd never seen this woman before so familiarity wasn't to blame. In the scheme of things, laughing in my face is not a smackable offence, regrettably. Rise above it. It's hard, but I think this dozy cow wouldn't dare do the same to me again.
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